Where Flowers Bloom
by Kado-Kattsune
Summary: Follow the Idiot 4 through various stages in their lives and careers as they struggle to deal with promotions, inadequacy, questionable summoning pursuits, the consequences of acting before thinking, crippling injuries, betrayal, revenge, and forgiveness. Maybe a bit of romance along the way if they can pull themselves together long enough. [OC Centric]
1. Basil

**Basil - Good Wishes**

The best table of the little tea shop, the one by the large window where the thrifty market center street could easily be seen and the window boxes were filled with fragrant herbs and poppies, had been occupied by children. Though their hitai-ate marked all three as ninja and their ragged clothing indicated they had competed in the recently ended Chunin Exams, they couldn't be any older than twelve.

In the center sat a girl, her face smudged with dirt and a cut on her eyebrow only recently closed, a thin line of dried blood still visible down her cheek. Her auburn hair was threatening to fall loose from a lopsided ponytail, sliding a little farther down with every movement as she animatedly stuffed mochi into her mouth; as if the sweets would sate her grumpy mood. To her right was a small boy, no taller than she was. His dark brown hair was fluffy in an awkward sort of way, as if he had gotten wet and then dried off by an electric shock. His carefully applied face paint- two long and thin triangles on each cheek like cat whiskers- had smudged. He fiddled with his tea cup, turning it around in his hands before drinking. To the girl's left was a taller boy, his blonde hair sticking up in a way that made it impossible to tell if it was the result of a fight or a stylistic choice. He sat stiffly, a little more distance put between him and the other two, as he focused on bandaging his fingers.

The blonde boy glanced across the table, pale green eyes watching as the mochi quickly disappeared from the plate. "You're going to choke."

" 'M not," she replied with all the dignity one could muster with cheeks stuffed full. The girl stopped mid-chewing motion and swallowing. "Hey, you're that Suna kid!"

The taller boy frowned, expression dipping into annoyance as he pointed a thumb at the symbol on his hitai-ate. "I'm not 'that Suna kid'. I'm a Leaf ninja too."

"But you came from Sunagakure," she insisted, looking exaggeratedly around the table. "You even had a puppet during your fight. What happened to it?"

"Broke," he answered simply, watching as the brunette boy grew visibly uncomfortable behind his tea cup. "Look, the Hokage already cleared me of-"

"Oh, I know you're not a spy," the girl responded, finally taking a sip of her tea.

The blonde boy blinked, closing his mouth and lowering his shoulders as his pending argument died. "Huh?"

She met his gaze with eyes as clear and bright as the Konoha skies, then she grinned; nose scrunching as if she were laughing at him. "What kind of stupid ass spy walks right into the Hokage's office and announces himself?"

The taller boy hesitated, looking as if he couldn't decide on how much he wanted to argue. Eventually he shrugged, "Fair. But then what's wrong with that guy?"

The girl turned to look at the table's third occupant, who had yet to sat a single word. "Oh, Ko-chan? He gets nervous around new people."

"Ko-chan?" the blonde repeated, squinting at the shorter boy.

He straightened, sitting his cup down with an awkward sort of clunk before sticking his hand out across the table. "N-Nekoshi Kyoshiro." His words caught as he spoke, but his smile seemed sincere, even if his body seemed to be radiating nervous energy.

"Menoue Hakaze," the blonde introduced, taking ahold of the offered hand and trying not to wince at his sore fingers. "And you, grumpy mochi?"

"Serizawa Kotone," the girl answered, placing a hand on top of the boys' handshake and turning the whole thing into some unholy amalgamation of a three-way handshake and a group cheer. Thankfully for all involved it ended quickly.

"So," Hakaze began, flexing his fingers before propping up his chin in the palm on a hand. His smile was placating, friendly, but there was laughter in his eyes. "What did the mochi do to deserve such a quick death?"

"Ugh," Kotone's expression turned sour. "Takahiko."

The blonde's eyebrow ticked upward, pale green eyes sliding over to the other boy for clarification. "Takahiko as in Kira Takahiko? The one that always looks vaguely pissed off? Isn't he the third on your squad?"

Kyoshiro nodded his head, taking another quick sip of his tea before answering, "K-Kotone-chan is," he paused, dancing his fingers on his cup as he considered his words, "U-upset that Kira-san was promoted without us."

"He's going to be insufferable," the girl snatched up the last remaining sweet from her plate, stuffing into her mouth and chewing as if it had personally offended her. "Can't even be bothered to eat with us."

"He had pa-paperwork," Kyoshiro frowned, his comment muttered quietly enough to nearly be lost in the ambient noise of the tea house. Louder he added, "And we were supposed to be looking for a congratulatory gift."

Kotone flipped her hair over her shoulder, opening her mouth to respond, only for her eyes to widen and her attention to snap back to the blonde. "You! You didn't pass either!"

Hakaze leaned away from the finger pointed at his face, eyes narrowing. "And?"

"And," she continued, pressing her palms flat against the tabletop to lean dramatically over. "Three man teams are required for entry into the Chunin Exams. With Takahiko promoted we're down a man. You should come train with us for next time!"

"You don't even know me," Hakaze countered, looking unconvinced.

"And you don't know us! So you can't counter out moves and we don't know how to counter yours. Learning!" The auburn haired girl grinned, dropping back into her seat and rubbing her hands together. "I can't wait for Takahiko to find out I got the jump on him before he could even think of the idea."

The blonde boy turned, looking to Kyoshiro in silent question. _Was she always like this?_ his eyes asked. The smaller boy gave a resigned nod, though the corners of his mouth were tugged into a fond smile.

"So you're coming with us, right?" Kotone asked, her earlier enthusiasm curbed in favor of returning to a normal conversation. "Get a gift with us and butter Takahiko up a bit."

Hakaze frowned, nose scrunching. "Do I need to butter him up? That sounds unpleasant."

"Oh, who knows what he's ever thinking," she shrugged, "But everyone likes gifts."

"Fine," the blonde relented, "Only because I have nothing better to do."

"Wh-What about your p-puppet?" Kyoshiro made a gesture, miming the approximate shape and size of the destroyed ninja tool. "Don't y-you want to fix it?"

"Konoha is many things, a lot less sandy for one, but it's not exactly conducive to puppetry." Hakaze grinned, reaching for his largely neglected tea cup. "Besides, I have something new in mind."

Kotone leaned closer, stealing a forgotten rice cracker from his place. "Tell me more."

"No," Hakaze answered, snatching his cracker back. "Don't you have things to do?"

"Yes," she agreed, "We do."

The three Genin filed out of the tea house directly into the market square. The lunch crowd was beginning to leave from various restaurants and food stalls, added to the young ninja released from the exams and the usual afternoon foot traffic the market was unusually full. The group wandered for a time, carefully weaving in and out of the crowds, before coming to a stop outside of Yamanaka Flowers.

Hakaze squinted suspiciously down at the flowers displayed at the front of the shop. "Kira doesn't much seem like the flower sort."

"He's n-not really," Kyoshiro agreed, politely waving to the blonde girl behind the counter. She smiled brightly and returned the gesture before returning her attention to the customer at the counter.

"He's so hard to shop for," Kotone groaned, dragging her hands down her face. "We've known him for years and it's still difficult to tell what he likes. Except for like that homemade jam old lady Haruka sells in the fall."

The blonde boy was silent for a moment, tapping his chin in consideration. "Then...why not get him the stuff to make his own jam? I see him in the market all the time, he likes to cook."

Kotone blinked once, twice, then grinned and smacked the taller boy on the back. Hakaze coughed and did his best not to stumble. "I knew consulting a spy would be helpful!"

"I'm not-" Any protest was cut short as the kunoichi's hand closed around his shirt and she turned, half-dragging Hakaze along with her down the street.

"Ko-chan! Say goodbye to Yamanaka-san, we have to go to the grocery!"

Kira Takahiko was exceptionally tall for his age; paired with his naturally stoic face, sharp eyes, and penchant for following uniform code he was often mistaken for being older. His dark red hair was styled short, just long enough to fall over his eyes, and styled neat with the exception of two particularly stubborn cowlicks at the back of his head. He had already acquired his Chunin vest and stood with his hands in his pockets, a folder of additional paperwork tucked safely under his arm.

The newly promoted shinobi tipped his head skyward, watching the sky for a moment as he tried to gauge the time. Takahiko frowned, "They're late."

In the instant the words passed his lips Takahiko's attention snapped to the right and his free hand rose to catch whatever had just come flying towards his head. His fingers closed around glass and the redhead blinked, turning his head to see the object fully. A glass jar, completely empty, with the lid secured tightly.

He frowned, eyes narrowing as he turned the jar around in his hand. It was a perfectly mundane canning jar of a brand he recognized from the local grocer. "What?"

"What would have happened," Hakaze asked from behind Kotone as the three of them stepped out from a nearby alleyway, Kyoshiro taking up the rear. "If he hadn't caught that?"

The girl snorted, "Of course he was going to catch it. I've been throwing things at his head since the Academy."

The blonde boy surveyed his fellow Genin with growing and visible concern. "I'm never telling you when my birthday is."

"Explain," Takahiko said simply, holding up the empty jar.

"Well," Kotone began, turning on her heel to face her taller teammate. "Because you're about as readable as a brick wall and the one thing we know for sure that you like it out of season, we got you this!"

The kunoichi stepped to the side with a needlessly dramatic reveal arm gesture to show Kyoshiro and the basket he was carrying. Inside was an assortment of seasonal berries, a bag of sugar of a questionable size, several more empty jars, and the little boxes of the gelling agent used to make jams and jellies instead of simply a mess.

"Congratulations on your promotion," Kotone and Kyoshiro said in unison, the boy's stutter only tripping him up a little. Hakaze, praying to whatever god or demon would listen that his didn't physically look as awkward as he felt, tossed the handful of confetti Kotone had forced on him.

Something that might have been a smile passed across Takahiko's face, so fleeting it could have been a trick of the light. He lifted the jar in his hand, bringing it down against the top of Kotone's head with a soft _thunk_. "I'm not sharing."


	2. Baby's Breath & Chestnut

**A/N:** The older I get the more I disagree with a lot of the Third's decisions. He wasn't a terrible man, per se, but he really dropped the ball on several issues and they came back to bite him in the ass. Some of them can be chalked up to ninja culture, I suppose, but I am bitter about him letting the treatment Naruto got slide. You have children of your own Hiruzen! Do better.

Gai's nickname for Kotone is an old reference to way back when I first attempted to write Naruto. The whole thing is 'My shining moonflower in a field of darkness'. I couldn't begin to explain why it was so funny at the time but for some reason it's stuck.

* * *

 **Baby's Breath - Innocence, purity of heart**

**Chestnut - Do me justice**

Takahiko was certain of several things in his life. That he was on track for his ultimate goal of ANBU at a fairly accelerated rate. That Kotone would claw her way up the ranks after him come hell or high water to prove wrong something he or Hatake or any number of innocuous ninja had said in passing during their Academy days; and that she would drag Kyoshiro and now Hakaze with her until one of them put their foot down and disagreed. He was also certain, wholly and irrevocably certain, that sleep had just found him seconds before he was being woken up.

"Psst," Kotone hissed- and it had to be Kotone prodding his face and hissing in his ear. Kyoshiro was too polite to enter a residence uninvited and Hakaze would have shouted him awake as soon as he opened the bedroom door. As Takahiko had no memory of hearing the front door or bedroom door open and Kotone was the only one who made a habit of sneaking in through windows, the kunoichi was the only remaining culprit. "Takahiko, wake up."

"No," Takahiko answered, his voice an uncharacteristic groan. Without opening his eyes the redhead turned his face away from the finger poking at him and buried it into the safety of his pillow. "Get out of my house."

He could hear the frown in her voice. Picture her expression perfectly- the one that made Kyoshiro do whatever she wanted- even with his face pressed into the dark confines of his pillow. "You're setting a terrible example for the baby."

The shinobi inhaled slowly, feeling his chances of finding sleep again slipping through his fingers. "You don't have a baby."

Kotone was quiet for several heartbeats, enough to put Takahiko on edge. Despite the fact that he had yet to open his eyes he could easily imagine the girl refusing to make eye contact, looking obviously to the side as if she suddenly found his decor interesting. "I do _currently_ …have a baby."

The redheaded ninja exhaled the breath he had been holding, turning his face enough to crack open one eye and glower at his teammate. Kotone had settled herself on the floor beside his bed, leaving little more than the top half of her face visible. Over her shoulder, secured in some sort of harness he couldn't see, was the round toddler face of Uzumaki Naruto staring at him with wide bluebell eyes and his entire pudgy baby fist in his mouth.

Takahiko blinked. Naruto drooled onto Kotone's shoulder, content with trying to devour his own appendage. "You're not on baby watching rotation." He paused, trying to recall a list he had only seen in passing. "At all."

The girl's shoulders rose into view as she shrugged, hands rising to exaggerate the gesture. "Oops."

"Put him back."

Kotone recoiled, physically removing herself from the bedside as if he had reached out and smacked her. "No!"

Naruto startled- seemingly more by the shout that the movement, though the hand left his mouth to close around the older girl's shirt to steady himself. The toddler's already large eyes widened as he looked between the other two occupants of the bedroom. It was an expression that would have almost been comical if not for the rabidly rising tears filling and then falling from his eyes. The sound of a crying child stoked an unknown sort of terror inside Takahiko and the teenager attempted to sit upright, without moving off of his stomach. He succeeded only in cracking his back.

"Oh no," Kotone was careful to keep her voice even and soft- something that unnerved Takahiko nearly as much as the sound of a baby's cry in its unfamiliarity- as she gently lifted the toddler into her lap. "Oh no, I wasn't yelling at you, Naru-chan. It's okay, see?" She smiled big for the small blonde, bouncing him on her knee. "You're fine."

Slowly the boy accepted her words, realizing he wasn't in trouble, and the crying subsided. Though large, wet tears continued to slide down his cheeks for several minutes. Takahiko sighed, settling himself cross legged on the center of his bed and completely abandoning even pretending that he would get back to sleep.

"He startles easy," he mused as Kotone set the toddler on the floor to wander. In the back of his mind the shinobi cycled through of what he could remember before the sweet embrace of his bed; if there were any wayward weapons for Naruto to stumble upon. Barring the toddler chewing his way into Takahiko's flack jacket it should be fine.

"Of course," Kotone frowned, shooting him a particularly frosty glare. Much too frosty, Takahiko thought, when she had been the one to break into his apartment and wake him. "Have you seen the way he's treated?"

"No," Takahiko admitted with a casual sort of indifference. "I had assumed that the son of the Fourth Hokage would be exceptionally treated." As the words left him the redhead blinked, one of the Third's decrees returning to him. "Or, barring that knowledge, that this is a helpless child. I was also under the impression that most people liked children."

"Well you would be wrong," the kunoichi argued. "I've checked on him several times in the past few weeks in between missions and he's largely ignored _at best_." Kotone threw her arms in the air to emphasize her point. "Babies need interaction Takahiko! Naruto is nearly two years old now. Did you know he should be speaking in short sentences? He barely knows his words."

"Are you-" Takahiko paused briefly as Naruto crawled under his bed and out of sight. "Are you reading baby care books?"

"Maybe," Kotone answered dismissively and Takahiko was reminded that since they, too, had made Chunin there was no one left to actively watch her as the old team was frequently separated. "But I'm not wrong. And he always seems hungry and half the time they let him run around without clothes. Speaking of," she paused in her rant, eyes quickly sweeping across his appearance. "Are you going to put on pants?"

"You broke into my room," he reminded her, expression remaining flat. "Finding me in my boxers was simply a risk you should have expected."

Kotone grinned in her own childish sort of way: one side tipping higher to turn the whole thing crooked, a flash of teeth. "I could make that dirty, you know."

"You will not." Takahiko stepped from the end of his bed. Tiny hands closed around his ankle the moment his foot touched tatami mat, followed shortly by a childish giggle that was perhaps unintentionally diabolic. The teenager lifted his leg straight out, the tiny blonde dangling from his ankle with a surprisingly solid grip. Naruto's giggles turned to proper laughter and he kicked his legs. Takahiko turned, leg still out, until Naruto was dangling above the bed. The teenager gave his leg a solid shake, dropping the toddler squarely in the center of the mattress, before continuing to his dresser. Naruto rolled across the bed and blew a raspberry.

The redhead opened a drawer, pulled out a pair of uniform pants, and stepped inside. "If we could return to our earlier conversation? You're sixteen, Kotone. You can't care for a child. Once you lived on fried tofu and miso soup for a week."

"Actually it was miso flavored potato chips and I don't want to be a mother," Kotone insisted and for once Takahiko believed her. "But Naruto doesn't deserve any of this. I might not be able to take care of him but he should have a time where the people around him aren't hostile or ignoring him."

"By kidnapping him," Takahiko's response was muffled as he pulled on a shirt.

Kotone frowned. "It's not like I had time to plan."

"And you're supposed to be a ninja." There was no hostility to his voice, just the resigned sort of acceptance that he had acquired through years of association with the girl. "Now, what did you wake me up for?"

"To make you an accomplice," Kotone answered, completely straight faced. "Now you're involved."

Takahiko ran a hand through his hair, searching for his hitai-ate. He found it on the floor near his bedroom door and silently cursed his past, sleep deprived self for nearly misplacing important items. "I could still turn you in. Now I say again, why did you wake me up?"

The kunoichi stood, picking up the toddler from the bed, tucking him against her side and balancing him carefully on her hip. "Naruto and I are getting lunch before I lobby the Third for proper child care and eating alone is sad."

"Kyoshiro-"

"Has 'kitten duty' today. Something about them needing proper socialization."

"Hakaze-"

"Is starting to shadow the Medic-nin at the hospital today and I really expected that you would remember that. It seems important."

It was Takahiko's turn to frown, the action exaggerating the natural deadpan of his expression. "You need more friends."

Kotone scoffed, waving her free hand. "Like you have so many."

"I am not reliant on others for basic human needs," the shinobi opened the door to his bedroom, giving an exaggerated bow that was entirely at odds with his face. "We won't be taking the window, thank you."

* * *

Naruto stuffed gyoza into his mouth with the abandon usually reserved for Kotone perusing the food stalls at festivals. Takahiko was both impressed this could be accomplished at such a young age and mildly terrified for the future.

"Is he-" Takahiko gestured to the toddler with his chopsticks, still unsure which feeling should be winning out. "Is he chewing?"

Kotone paused mid-chew, cheeks equally as stuffed with rice and fried tofu. She swallowed a mouthful that would choke a normal person before looking down at the blonde in his toddler seat. "Naru-chan, you don't have to rush. You can have more."

Naruto stopped trying to shove the third gyoza into his already full mouth. He stared with those wide blue eyes of his, as if he couldn't understand the words. He tried to speak around the food and Takahiko was- horribly, terribly- becoming more certain of Kotone's kidnapping plan. "More?"

"Yup!" Kotone beamed, tipping her bowl slightly to dump rice into Naruto's dwindling plate. "As much as you want."

Naruto grinned in return, lost a dumpling, and scrambled to catch it before it fell from his lap.

"Ah, my shining moonflower!" A boisterous voice broke through the conversation and the two shinobi turned to find the self-proclaimed Beast of Konoha dragging a chair over to their table to join them. Gai smiled in that abnormally large, exceedingly friendly way only he could manage, the lights catching the rapidly dissipating sweat from his face and making it seem as if he could sparkle. "I thought I heard your dulcet tones."

"Gai!" Kotone greeted with equal exuberance, holding up her arms as if cheering for the return of a long-gone comrade. "Finished your morning training?"

"Of course!" Gai gave the table a thumbs up as he dropped into his chair. The green-clad ninja paused before he could begin explaining his routine, noticing the toddler for the first time. "Ah, the infamous young Uzumaki." He leaned down enough to put himself at eye level with Naruto from across the table. "A healthy appetite is the pinnacle of Youth, young man!"

Unsure of what to do, Naruto reached across the table and stuck one of the few remaining gyoza into Gai's mouth. Takahiko sighed, pouring himself another cup of tea as the Taijutsu enthusiast became visibly emotional.

"There, there." Kotone gently rubbed Gai's back as he sobbed openly. "Why don't you have lunch with us?"

Takahiko scooted the napkin dispenser over to the crying teenager before taking a long drink from his teacup. Gai grabbed several napkins and blew his nose loudly before he sat upright again, dabbing at his eyes. Once his emotions were properly under control Gai reached out and clapped the redhead on the back with vigor. "You're a good man, Kira."

It took more effort than Takahiko cared to admit to not cough into his tea, which was sadly being sloshed across the table.

"Tell me, my shining moonflower," Gai continued, unaware of Takahiko's discomfort but thankfully no longer pounding on his back. "How did young Uzumaki end up in your care?"

"She stole him," Takahiko answered, mopping up the spilled tea. Naruto slammed an open hand into the puddle, splashing Takahiko in the face.

"I stole him," Kotone agreed with ease.

"More!" cheered Naruto.

"I see." To his credit Gai took the news in stride, his large smile not even faltering. Instead he turned, flagging down a waitress to order curry udon for both him and Naruto.

From under the table Kotone's leg shot out, kicking her former teammate in the shin. "See? Gai didn't spend twenty minutes questioning me."

"Gai is the most accepting person in Konoha-"

"Why thank you!" Gai clapped the redhead on the back again and Takahiko nearly dropped his cup.

"And," he continued, setting the cup on the table and wholly giving up on drinking tea, "As far as he's concerned you've done nothing wrong in your life."

Kotone propped her chin up with the palm of her hand, watching the redhead from across the table. "You say that like it's not true."

Takahiko stared back, not flinching away from the eye contact and looking much more tired than when he had first been woken up. "I'm leaving."

"Aww," the kunoichi teased as Takahiko stood. "You're no fun."

"And I never will be," he responded, turning to Gai as he passed. "Don't let her keep Naruto past lunch."

"Of course," Gai agreed. Takahiko scrutinized the people at the table long enough to question the reliability of his choices, then decided that this would be his only chance to go back to bed if he lingered. Once Takahiko had wandered from the restaurant Gai turned, smiling a wise sparkling smile at Kotone. "I said you couldn't keep him past lunch but what if I took custody of him and we ventured off to the park?"

"Gai," Kotone returned the grin, showing teeth in a way that spelled trouble. "Sometimes I think you might be my soulmate."

"Ah, moonflower, if only one day I could be so worthy of you."

"Ptttbh," added Naruto, though it was unclear if that was his view on the conversation or the freshly arrived curry udon.

* * *

The sun was beginning to set by the time Kotone brought Naruto to the Hokage's office. The toddler had kept up with Gai's breakneck pace for longer than Kotone had thought possible; right up until Naruto had tipped backward out of the swing and landed face first in the gravel. Gai had screamed loud enough to startle the birds from the trees and Naruto had laughed.

Kotone shifted the blonde on her hip, carefully pressing the band-aid on his forehead to make sure it didn't peel off. Naruto yawned and buried his face in her shoulder.

"Alright, buddy," the kunoichi said, straightening her shoulders. "Let's see what we can do about this."

As soon as Kotone stepped foot into the building a harried looking woman appeared to carry Naruto off. The teenager recognized her as the woman she had stolen Naruto from earlier that day. She shot Kotone a very sour look, leaving the shinobi to hope she had been told off for her negligence, but Naruto waved sleepily as he disappeared back out the door. Kotone waved back, turning physically around to watch until child and reluctant caretaker disappeared from sight.

"Good evening, Serizawa-chan." The Third Hokage spoke in a manner that reminded Kotone of how she imagined a grandfather would: familiar enough with a child's antics to expect them but tired and ready to return said children to their parents.

As she turned to face the village leader Kotone wasn't sure if she should be aggravated or impressed that a man his age was still so silent. "Good evening, Hokage-sama. I was hoping to speak with you."

Hiruzen smiled in a way that said he had been expecting as much. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

"Well," the teenager responded without missing a beat, "I have been known for bad news on several occasions. I'm finally starting to step into the role proper."

"Tell me what's on your mind."

"I'm worried about Naruto," she answered as the two of them began to walk back to the Hokage's office. "He's at a very important age, development wise, and I just don't think he's getting the attention he needs."

The Hokage nodded in a way that showed he was listening. Kotone had to wonder if he was simply placating her or if he would take this matter seriously. He had been the one to decide Naruto's care initially; but surely he hadn't expected this.

"It's not like I just decided to run off with him," the kunoichi continued, wishing she had spent more time considering what to say. "I've stopped by before on my way back from missions and-"

"I can assure you," the Third Hokage held up a hand before reaching out to open the door to his office. "Kurosabe-san has been given a stern warning and the rest of the rotation are being reviewed. If you have other concerns we can take note of them."

"Reviewed? Well how long is that going to-" Kotone paused two steps before entering the office, eyes narrowing in belated realization. "I'm sorry, _warning_? She frequently ignores a two year old and she gets a warning? Don't you have children? Where is your compassion?"

"Serizawa-chan." There is a warning edge to his voice, she can sense it as surely as she can feel her grasp on rationality sliding away under the weight of her emotions. It's unprofessional, more than a little rude, and Kotone isn't sure that she cared. "You are correct that this behavior is wrong but it is also an unfortunate circumstance that nearly every shinobi Chunin level and above was active that night and is aware of what became of Naruto-kun."

"Then they should have more respect for a hero's son!" Kotone threw an arm out, gesturing out the window where the Hokage monument was being shrouded in the dark of the approaching night. "Or let a civilian nanny care for him, they'll only see a child!"

The Hokage sighed. It was clear this was an argument he'd had before; it showed as an additional weight on his shoulders and the thin line of his mouth. "A civilian would be woefully under prepared if the Kyubi-"

Kotone stomped her foot, even knowing it made her look like a petulant child. "Naruto isn't the Kyubi! The only thing he did that night was be born. Why should he be punished for it?"

"I can see this is very important to you."

The girl swallowed her retort, wrestled with her anger as if it were a physical enemy. _Why isn't it important to you?_ The unspoken words burned and the physical effort it took Kotone to subdue her temper would have made Takahiko sneer.

She took a steadying breath before speaking, "With all due respect Hokage-sama, this is a very important time in a child's development."

The Third Hokage arched an eyebrow in silent question.

"I…" Kotone dropped her gaze to her feet, "Might have been reading baby care books recently."

"Very important to you," Hiruzen amended, the ghost of amused laughter in his words. "Am I correct in assuming that you're not suggesting I put Naruto-kun in your care?"

"Yes," the kunoichi nodded slowly. "I'm aware that I'm not in any position to care for a child completely."

"Then what would you suggest?"

Kotone blinked owlishly, moving her line of sight from her feet to the older man. "What do I suggest?"

"I would like to hear your opinions, as you've been so vocal about them already." There was no hostility in his voice, no condemnation, but Kotone felt her ears burn. She didn't, however, regret.

"Well, I think a review is a good idea." Kotone began, speaking slowly as she decided her points. "But Kurosabe...san should be removed as soon as possible. I would imagine she's holding a grudge from that night and she won't ever see Naruto as a child."

Hiruzen nodded, adjusting a stack of files on his desk. "I had hoped putting her in charge of Naruto-kun would allow her to realize that he was a generally normal toddler. I can see now that I was incorrect."

 _'Wrong,'_ the girl thought, toying absently with the end of her ponytail. _'You were wrong. Incorrect assigns less blame.'_

"And," the Hokage continued, drawing the teenager's attention, "would it be correct to assume that even with a staff rotation that you still may see fit to steal Naruto-kun on occasion?"

"I...thought about it," Kotone admitted. "We had fun. He really seemed to enjoy it."

The Third Hokage hummed in thought. "Perhaps preventative measures should be put in place."

"Oh."

"Unless otherwise occupied with your duties as a Leaf shinobi, Serizawa-chan, why don't you take Naruto-kun out for an afternoon every other week or so?"

"Oh!"


End file.
